The search for new therapeutic agents has been greatly aided in recent years by a better understanding of the structure of enzymes and other biomolecules associated with diseases. One important class of enzymes that has been the subject of extensive study is protein kinases.
Protein kinases constitute a large family of structurally related enzymes that are responsible for the control of a variety of signal transduction processes within the cell. (Hardie, G. and Hanks, S. The Protein Kinase Facts Book, I and II, Academic Press, San Diego, Calif.: 1995). Protein kinases are thought to have evolved from a common ancestral gene due to the conservation of their structure and catalytic function. Almost all kinases contain a similar 250-300 amino acid catalytic domain. The kinases may be categorized into families by the substrates they phosphorylate (e.g., protein-tyrosine, protein-serine/threonine, lipids, etc.). Sequence motifs have been identified that generally correspond to each of these kinase families (See, for example, Hanks, S. K., Hunter, T., FASEB J. 1995, 9, 576-596; Knighton et al., Science 1991, 253, 407-414; Hiles et al., Cell 1992, 70, 419-429; Kunz et al., Cell 1993, 73, 585-596; Garcia-Bustos et al., EMBO J. 1994, 13, 2352-2361).
In general, protein kinases mediate intracellular signaling by affecting a phosphoryl transfer from a nucleoside triphosphate to a protein acceptor that is involved in a signaling pathway. These phosphorylation events act as molecular on/off switches that can modulate or regulate the target protein biological function. These phosphorylation events are ultimately triggered in response to a variety of extracellular and other stimuli. Examples of such stimuli include environmental and chemical stress signals (e.g., osmotic shock, heat shock, ultraviolet radiation, bacterial endotoxin, and H2O2), cytokines (e.g., interleukin-1 (IL-1) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)), and growth factors (e.g., granulocyte macrophage-colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), and fibroblast growth factor (FGF)). An extracellular stimulus may affect one or more cellular responses related to cell growth, migration, differentiation, secretion of hormones, activation of transcription factors, muscle contraction, glucose metabolism, control of protein synthesis, and regulation of the cell cycle. Many diseases are associated with abnormal cellular responses triggered by protein kinase-mediated events as described above. These diseases include, but are not limited to, autoimmune diseases, inflammatory diseases, bone diseases, metabolic diseases, neurological and neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, allergies and asthma, Alzheimer's disease, and hormone-related diseases. Accordingly, there has been a substantial effort in medicinal chemistry to find protein kinase inhibitors that are effective as therapeutic agents.
Initiation, progression, and completion of the mammalian cell cycle are regulated by various cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) complexes, which are critical for cell growth. These complexes comprise at least a catalytic (the CDK itself) and a regulatory (cyclin) subunit. Some of the more important complexes for cell cycle regulation include cyclin A (CDK1-also known as cdc2, and CDK2), cyclin B1-B3 (CDK1) and cyclin D1-D3 (CDK2, CDK4, CDK5, CDK6), cyclin E (CDK2). Each of these complexes is involved in a particular phase of the cell cycle. Not all members of the CDK family are involved exclusively in cell cycle control, however. Thus CDKs 7, 8, and 9 are implicated in the regulation of transcription, and CDK5 plays a role in neuronal and secretory cell function.
The activity of CDKs is regulated post-translationally, by transitory associations with other proteins, and by alterations of their intracellular localization. Tumor development is closely associated with genetic alteration and deregulation of CDKs and their regulators, suggesting that inhibitors of CDKs may be useful anti-cancer therapeutics. Indeed, early results suggest that transformed and normal cells differ in their requirement for, e.g., cyclin A/CDK2 and that it may be possible to develop novel antineoplastic agents devoid of the general host toxicity observed with conventional cytotoxic and cytostatic drugs. While inhibition of cell cycle-related CDKs is clearly relevant in, e.g., oncology applications, this may not be the case for the inhibition of RNA polymerase-regulating CDKs. On the other hand, inhibition of CDK9/cyclin T function was recently linked to prevention of HIV replication and the discovery of new CDK biology thus continues to open up new therapeutic indications for CDK inhibitors (Sausville, E. A. Trends Molec. Med. 2002, 8, S32-S37).
The function of CDKs is to phosphorylate and thus activate or deactivate certain proteins, including e.g. retinoblastoma proteins, lamins, histone H1, and components of the mitotic spindle. The catalytic step mediated by CDKs involves a phospho-transfer reaction from ATP to the macromolecular enzyme substrate. Several groups of compounds (reviewed in e.g. Fischer, P. M. Curr. Opin. Drug Discovery Dev. 2001, 4, 623-634) have been found to possess anti-proliferative properties by virtue of CDK-specific ATP antagonism.
At a molecular level mediation of cdk/cyclin complex activity requires a series of stimulatory and inhibitory phosphorylation, or dephosphorylation, events. Cdk phosphorylation is performed by a group of cdk activating kinases (CAKs) and/or kinases such as wee1, Myt1 and Mik1. Dephosphorylation is performed by phosphatases such as cdc25(a & c), pp2a, or KAP. Cdk/cyclin complex activity may be further regulated by two families of endogenous cellular proteinaceous inhibitors: the Kip/Cip family, or the INK family. The INK proteins specifically bind cdk4 and cdk6. p16ink4 (also known as MTS1) is a potential tumour suppressor gene that is mutated, or deleted, in a large number of primary cancers. The Kip/Cip family contains proteins such as p21Cip1,Waf1, p27Kip1 and p57kip2. As discussed previously p21 is induced by p53 and is able to inactivate the cdk2/cyclin(E/A) and cdk4/cyclin(D1/D2/D3) complexes. Atypically low levels of p27 expression have been observed in breast, colon and prostate cancers. Conversely over expression of cyclin E in solid tumours has been shown to correlate with poor patient prognosis. Over expression of cyclin D1 has been associated with oesophageal, breast, squamous, and non-small cell lung carcinomas.
The pivotal roles of cdks, and their associated proteins, in co-ordinating and driving the cell cycle in proliferating cells have been outlined above. Some of the biochemical pathways in which cdks play a key role have also been described. The development of monotherapies for the treatment of proliferative disorders, such as cancers, using therapeutics targeted generically at cdks, or at specific cdks, is therefore potentially highly desirable. Cdk inhibitors could conceivably also be used to treat other conditions such as viral infections, autoimmune diseases and neuro-degenerative diseases, amongst others. Cdk targeted therapeutics may also provide clinical benefits in the treatment of the previously described diseases when used in combination therapy with either existing, or new, therapeutic agents. Cdk targeted anticancer therapies could potentially have advantages over many current antitumour agents as they would not directly interact with DNA and should therefore reduce the risk of secondary tumour development.
Thus, there is a continued need to find new therapeutic agents to treat human diseases. Accordingly, there is a great need to develop inhibitors of protein kinases, such as CDK1, CDK2, CDK4, CDK5, CDK6, CDK7, CDK8 and CDK9.